How did the Elgin Marbles get here? - BBC News.
Only a few years after Elgin took the marbles, the Greek War of Independence broke out and by 1832 they had become an independent and modern state. If you believe that the Ottomans were not the true government of Greece at the time, that they were an illegitimate occupying power, than you could argue that they did not have the legal right to sign away any antiquities, let alone the Parthenon.
Drawing out the artistic, moral, legal and political perspectives of the argument, Hitchens's eloquent prose makes The Elgin Marbles an invaluable contribution to one of the most important cultural controversies of our times.
Britain has not history to do with the elgin marbles, therefor, they have no purpose in the British museum; they belong in Greece (their birthplace). Britain stole these marbles (from the Parthenon) from the Greeks with no permission, therefore they belong to Greece. This is why i believe that Greece should get their belongings back.
The scope of this essay is to investigate how important the Parthenon sculptures are in defining the Greek national identity through the events that occurred before and after the removal of the marbles from the Acropolis, their role as international symbols, and why they should be returned to Greece.
The debate over the return of the Parthenon marbles raises complex questions about cultural property, international law, and the role of museums in a nation’s cultural life. From Lord Byron to Stephen Fry, the voices supporting the return of the Marbles to Greece have been powerful.
The British Museum has vowed to fight off any attempt by the EU to take back the Elgin Marbles during Brexit talks as it said they were acquired 'completely legally'.
Turning to the modern era, the most detailed account of Lord Elgin’s removal of the Marbles in the early nineteenth century, and their surprisingly circuitous journey to the British Museum, can be found in William St. Clair’s outstanding Lord Elgin and the Marbles (Oxford, 1967; third revised edition, 1998).